


Mamihlapinatapai

by Pseudothyrum



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Crack, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Unrequited Love, angsting like teenagers, horrible poetry, maybe you guys should just try talking to each other, worse taste in music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-12
Updated: 2014-06-12
Packaged: 2018-02-04 07:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1770466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pseudothyrum/pseuds/Pseudothyrum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brian and Jimmy have a crush on one another, but neither can bring himself to say it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Toska

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the kinkmeme prompt "Both think they have an unrequited crush on each other, and they angst over it like teenagers. Most people think they're already together."

Beverly is sitting at a table in the break room, enjoying a novel, when Brian Zeller sweeps into the room. He throws himself down on the sofa dramatically, arm over his eyes, and lays there, obviously waiting for Beverly to speak. She coughs awkwardly. 

“Hey Brian,” she tries, “what’s up?” He flips himself over so he’s on his stomach, face resting on the armrest so that only his eyes are visible.   
“Can you keep a secret, Bev?” he asks urgently. She nods. 

“You promise? You can’t tell anybody ever. This is really serious.”

“Of course, Brian,” she’s starting to feel a little concerned now, although also a little bit like she’s back in high school, “what’s the matter? You can tell me anything.” He sighs dramatically and sits up, a blush creeping into his cheeks. 

“I... have a crush on Jimmy. But he can never know, he doesn’t feel the same way, we could never be together.” She stares at him for one long moment.

“Aren’t you two already together?” she asks, brows furrowed. He gapes at her. 

“No of course not! How on Earth could you think that? He would never want to be with someone like me, he can never know how I feel.” His arm finds its way back over his eyes and he sinks into the cushions. At this moment Jack wanders into the break room. 

“What’s his problem?” he asks, tossing his head in the direction of Zeller, who has managed to slide so far down that most of his body is suspended over the floor, with feet on ground and shoulders on the sofa.

“He’s in love with Jimmy,” Beverly answers without hesitation, prompting an immediate glare of equal parts indignation and betrayal from Zeller. 

“Aren’t you two already together?” Jack asks in surprise. Zeller throws his arms into the air and storms out of the room, muttering about egregious betrayals of trust and a complete inability to comprehend the complexities of their relationship. Beverly and Jack exchange a confused glance. 

“I could have sworn they were a thing, all the time they spend together,” Jack shrugs and wanders back out of the room. 

Beverly returns to her book, shaking her head. 

“Boys.” 

*** 

About a week later, Beverly catches Jimmy watching Zeller moving around the lab, talking at a mile a minute, using obscure terms that they all know neither Jack nor Will are even close to comprehending. The look on his face is soft, a smile plays about his lips. 

“He’s cute when he’s like this, isn’t he?” she says quietly, nudging Jimmy gently with her elbow. He immediately flushes a deep red.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he splutters. 

“Really, because you’ve been staring at him all day. I think someone has a little cruuuuuuush,” she is grinning broadly now. "I read your blog Jimmy, I'm not an idiot."

“Please Bev, you can’t ever tell him, he wouldn’t be interested in someone as old as me. It has to be our secret forever.” Will, who has drifted closer in an effort to escape Zeller’s increasingly animated demonstration, leans towards them. 

“Are you talking about Zeller?” he asks, “Aren’t you two already together?” Jimmy looks stunned by the very idea. Beverly shrugs helplessly, mouthing “I thought so too,” as Jimmy blubbers about the tragedy of his unrequited love, which could never be returned in a million years. 

***

Alana leads a contrite-looking Zeller into the lab, where Beverly has been tidying up after the last incredibly odd corpse was dissected there. 

“I found him on the roof listening to Taylor Swift and writing poetry,” Alana says, gently pushing Zeller towards Beverly, “He won’t tell me what’s up, he just keeps sighing and moping. I thought maybe you might be able to find out what’s wrong.” 

“Brian,” Beverly begins, aiming for a voice of reason and calm, “have you tried actually talking to Jimmy about your feelings?” His eyes widen in alarm. 

“Of course not! If he knew how I feel... it would ruin everything! We could never be friends again, we could never go back to how it is now. Can’t you see that?” Alana is looking between them, confusion on her face. 

“Wait, you’re obsessing over Jimmy Price?” she says, and then, after a moment of consideration, “Aren’t you two already together?” Zeller makes a noise in his throat that is somewhere between incredulity and distress.

“No! Why does everybody think that? We could never be. I am destined to be a far-distant satellite, forever circling his bright star, unnoticed and alone.” His eyes light up at this and he begins scribbling in what can only be assumed to be his notebook of poetry 

“Unrequited love,” Beverly says to a bemused Alana, “it’s all very tragic.”

***

“You realise you drew hearts all around Brian’s name on the last report, right?” Beverly says, sliding the offending papers across the table to Jimmy, “Also the autopsy report probably isn’t the best place for your haikus about how good he is at science.” Colour floods Jimmy’s face as he trips over himself to apologize, putting his hands over the offending poetry as if it hasn’t already been seared into her memory forever.

“Have you considered actually asking him if he might be interested?” she asks, as Jimmy busies himself with redoing all the paperwork

“Don’t be silly, Bev, of course he isn’t, why should I bother asking? He’s so handsome. And smart. And funny. And perfect. I could never make him happy. I’m doomed to be alone, I’ve made my peace with that,” Beverly rolls her eyes. 

“Right, this is ridiculous,” she gets up and marches out of the room.  

She returns ten minutes later, dragging a protesting Zeller by his shirt collar, having interrupted him mid-Taylor Swift ballad. When they arrive, Jimmy looks between the two of them with growing horror. 

“Bev, what--” 

“Shut up,” she says, cutting him off, “you have both been pining over each other like morons for weeks. Stop writing shitty poetry about each other and just have sex already,” She storms out of the room, leaving them to pick up the pieces of their own emotional retardation. Boys, honestly.


	2. S'entendre

They stare at each other for a long, awkward moment after Beverly leaves them, eyes locked together in an intense look that conveys the deep emotional pain of endless hours spent worrying over one another, and admiring from afar, and listening to terrible pop music.

“I wrote a haiku about how good you are at science,” says Jimmy into the growing silence. 

“Oh my god,” says Zeller, pulling the proffered pages towards himself, “that is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.” He reads the haiku and then looks up into Jimmy’s eyes, burning with emotion and desire.

“Do you want to go have sex and then talk about bees and science and stuff?” he asks. 

“Oh my god yes, so much.” And so they did. 

And they all lived happily ever after.


End file.
